


Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue.

by AcesOfSpade



Series: Canon Remix [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Angst, Bucky Barnes as Captain America, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Sort of? - Freeform, Steve Rogers as the Winter Soldier, World War II
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-23
Updated: 2015-07-31
Packaged: 2018-04-10 19:22:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4404248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AcesOfSpade/pseuds/AcesOfSpade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky Barnes was a scrappy little thing, probably could've been knocked over by the wind if he wasn't so damn stubborn. </p><p>Steve Rogers was his best friend, fiercely loyal, sweet, and protective. He made sure Bucky was always safe and healthy when nobody else would.</p><p>Come 1942, everything changes for these two friends. Steve is drafted into what we call the Second World War, which was just another war to them. Bucky did everything in his power to get drafted, not wanting to be away from Steve, lest Steve die.</p><p>Nothing went according to plan. Suddenly, Bucky's this national icon who lost his best friend, and presumably his life, for the cause.</p><p>70-some years later, America will realize. They'll realize they were wrong, and the Avengers will learn there is nothing, not anything, can keep Steve Rogers an Bucky Barnes apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Wordless Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from the Toby Keith song 'Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue'.
> 
> Also, I've decided to give this AU a Marvel-like universe name: Earth-788259. Props if you can figure out why. ^_^

Bucky Barnes had always been small and scrappy, with so many things wrong with him it was a miracle he was still alive. He’d survived so many diseases and maladies he figured he was basically immune to anything now.

 

Well, okay. Bucky knew how he was alive. It was all thanks to his best friend, Steve Rogers. Steve was a god-send. He was the sweetest, most protective person Bucky had ever had the pleasure of meeting. Tall and somewhat imposing, Steve kept the other kids, the bullies, from beating up Bucky whenever possible. Sometimes, Steve found Bucky in an alley, usually with a broken nose or a black eye. Steve would just sigh and bring Bucky back to his place to clean him up before sending him back to his parents.

 

Come 1942, everything changed. Just Bucky’s luck, Steve was drafted into the war. No matter how many times Bucky had tried to enlist, he’d been turned down. He’d even started illegally altering his records in hopes of being drafted.

 

Sadly, no one would take him. It wasn’t until after Steve was shipped out that Bucky even got the tiniest sliver of hope, that turned into a full-on gash. At one of the enlistment posts, he’d been turned down again, but someone else came to him as he was leaving.

 

Dr. Abraham Erskine.

 

That was a name Bucky Barnes wouldn’t soon forget. He was the man who changed his life, for worse or better, he couldn’t tell.

 

Dr. Erskine had introduced him to two others who would forever alter his life: Margaret Carter and Howard Stark.

 

The three of them, they were what got Bucky into the war.

 

Dr. Erskine had been developing a serum, one that would turn anyone into the peak human being. Oh God, did it do a number on Bucky.

 

Going into the experiment, Bucky was five foot nothing, maybe a hundred pounds soaking wet. Coming out, not even his sister would recognize Bucky.

 

Standing 5’11”, easily two hundred pounds, Bucky filled out and looked so much different. From there, Peggy trained him, and he was shipped out.

 

He was assigned the 107th, same as Steve. Said soldier, a sergeant, had been confused and shocked to see what Bucky had become. Of course, they paraded him around like a showgirl for a bit, talking up the war for younger soldiers. They’d dubbed him ‘Captain America’, which annoyed Steve. He’d gone from the bottom straight to Captain.

 

Regardless, Steve and Bucky fought alongside each other and the rest of the 107th, dubbed the ‘Howling Commandos’. They fought hard, and fought well. That is, until the 107th, minus Bucky, were taken by HYDRA. They were experimenting on them, but Bucky managed to get them out.

 

Not long after, Steve, Bucky, and the Commandos were set for a mission involving a train over a canyon. Everything went smoothly. That is, until it didn’t.

 

It seemed to come out of nowhere, that jerk of the train. It was enough to send Steve over the edge, gripping the floor of the open door with everything he had. Bucky had grabbed his hand, trying to pull him back up.

 

“I’m with you, until the end of the line.” were the last words Bucky heard from Steve before they lost their grips, Steve plummeting God knows how far down into the snowy canyon.

 

Unknown to Bucky, all Steve lost was his left arm. He lived, but would spend the next several decades as a pawn.

 

Without ample time to grieve the loss of his best friend, Bucky was given a solo mission in the Arctic. He never got to complete, or even begin, that mission, as his plane went down. Everyone believed him dead, dubbing him a war hero.

 

Those were the events that led up to this moment, the moment SHIELD had been called in to investigate something strange in the Arctic. A plane, most likely.

 

While exploring, an agent saw the glint of something shiny and metal in his peripheral, going to check it out. Brushing some snow off a block of ice, his heart skipped a beat.

  
There, glinting in his face, was the shield of the presumed-dead Captain James Barnes.


	2. Compromised

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky's been settled for two years now, post Battle of New York. However, things pick up again when a mysterious figure appears and shoots the Director in his living room.

Two years had past since Captain James Buchanan Barnes was defrosted from his seventy year sleep in a block of ice. He’d adapted to the modern world quite well, but a few things still baffled him, like the rise in crime rates and the general idea of Artificial Intelligence. Like JARVIS. Yeah, Bucky didn’t like JARVIS. He would speak up at the most inopportune of times, usually to tell him something Tony wanted him to know, or remind him of something. Usually, it was the former. Tony always wanted him to know the most random of things, like how to work an electric razor or stuff like that, as if Bucky hadn’t been in this era for two years.

 

Another thing Bucky wasn’t a fan of was not having Steve. Steve had been his rock, the one to help him understand things, or the one to make him feel better. Without Steve, he felt less like himself and more like a soldier suffering from what he’d been told was ‘Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’. He was having nightmares about the war, horrible ones, waking up in cold sweats, and on one occasion, tears. Even after more than 70 years out of the war, Bucky was still having these nightmares. Nightmares about the train, about the Arctic, perverted memories where he couldn’t save the 107th. A whole array of nightmares. He also couldn’t handle cold temperatures, usually not anything below -15C. If his body got to cold, he went into panic, believing he was back in the Arctic, freshly frozen again. The Avengers had learned to keep the heat on during the winter after what happened during Bucky’s first winter in the Tower.

 

It had been cold, about -25C. The power had been knocked out in all of New York because of the recent blizzard. Not even Stark’s generator was running, that’s how bad it was. The team had been huddled together with blankets, trying to stay warm. Bucky had gotten up to go use the washroom, despite his better judgement, freezing in his place. His whole body seemed to shut completely down. He wasn’t moving, Bruce swore he wasn’t even breathing. He was just frozen, blanket wrapped around his shoulders, eyes wide. He had a look of sheer terror on his face, one that had Bruce up and off the couch in a matter of minutes. He’d tried calming Bucky down, but he only unfroze when the power came back on, thus the heat did too. He never talked about it, but they had ideas about what had happened.

 

Back to the present, Bucky was sitting at the kitchen table, head resting on his arms as he thought. He was still thinking about Steve. Maybe if Bucky survived, maybe there was a chance Steve had as well. This had all been spurred by a visit to Peggy, dear old Peggy who didn’t remember Bucky was at her bedside if she turned her view away. It broke his heart, seeing his girl like that, but he needed her to know he was still here, still with her.

 

Screw it, he thought as he got up from the table. I’ll go for a run. Heading to his room, he changed into workout clothes, deciding to slip his book of things to read/watch/listen to into his pocket. He like bringing it out in public, hoping he’d find something on the list.

 

He did his usual run, this time managing to make a friend. It was an odd way to make a friend, lapping them four or five times in one run and yelling ‘on your left’ every damn time. The man’s name was Sam, and he worked at the local VA. He was a soldier as well, a pilot, Bucky believed. Sam was a pretty nice guy, so Bucky offered to stay in touch with him.

 

Later that day, Bucky had to report to SHIELD. As much as he didn’t like the agency’s values, he was only there for Peggy. Peggy had founded SHIELD, and Bucky was only there to uphold her values, and what she wanted to accomplish.

 

SHIELD had assigned him and Natasha Romanoff, an ex-KGB spy, to an assignment. A group of mercenaries had taken over a SHIELD vessel. He and Romanoff were being sent in to save the hostages. At least, that’s what he had thought, until he found Romanoff downloading the ship’s data mainframe to a pendrive. He wasn’t mad, per say, just… annoyed. He liked knowing exactly what the team he was working with was doing, not this going in clueless and blind shit. If Natasha had been hurt while he was off making sure the hostages were safe, he would’ve liked to know what she was doing when it happened.

 

Once they were back on dry land, Bucky went out for another run with Sam. They talked a little more, Sam getting Bucky to relax and loosen up a bit.

 

Returning home, Bucky was greeted by a peculiar sight: Director Fury sitting on his couch, doing nothing. When Fury noticed Bucky, he turned to face him.

 

“What are you doing here?” Bucky asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

 

“My wife kicked me out.” Fury said simply. He had a small device in his hands, which he seemed to be typing on. He showed the screen to Bucky, which told him the apartment was bugged.

 

“Didn’t know you were married.” Bucky commented, giving a nod to show he understood.

 

“Lots of things you don’t know about me.” Fury said, showing him another message, declaring that SHIELD was compromised. Bucky’s head tilted in confusion, but he didn’t bring it up.

 

Of course, he had no chance to, as the sound of shattering glass pierced the room, setting both on high alert. Fury reached for his gun, while Bucky grabbed his trusty shield.

  
A figure burst into the room, dressed in black, a mask covering its face. Before anyone could react, it fired a shot at Fury, getting him right where it wanted. Bucky chased after the figure as it darted for the window, throwing his shield at it when it jumped over to the roof of the next building. The figure caught the shield, throwing it back. Bucky caught sight of glinting metal that wasn’t his shield. The figure seemed to have a metal arm, or at least a metal hand.


End file.
